The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c7.4

c7.4

It is these water-courses that the invader from the northwest had perforce to follow, for living on the lands he traversed was a vital necessity; to misunderstand the direction of geography was to court disaster. Muizzuddin's earlier attempts on India provide a good illustration, but a preliminary remark on the route from Afghanistan appears relevant. The ordinary route from beyond the Sulaiman mountains in those days was not the well-known Khaibar pass, nor the Bolan in the south, but through the Gomal which led to Dera Ismail Khan and thence to upper Sind Sagar Doab. The Khaibar, Bolan and the less accessible Kurram and Tochi passes were not used by trading caravans to the same extent as the Gomal passage which was the normal military route¹.